Rook dropped low, his palms slamming into the ground with a resonant thoom as the molten stone beneath him rippled, and his body began to transform.
The rock flowed up his arms like living liquid, crackling and hissing as it hardened over his skin, and his entire body became encased in the same molten stone that resembled what the Giant was made of: jagged, glowing with veins of orange light, and radiating heat.
The transformation took seconds, and when Rook stood, he looked like a walking volcano.
The rest of the team sprang into action as Emma charged forward, her massive cleaver blazing with fury.
The Giant swung its sword in a wide, deadly arc, but Emma was ready. She hoisted the Dragon King overhead, her right hand gripping the handle with every ounce of strength, and braced her other palm against the flat of the blade as the Giant's sword crashed down, meeting it head-on with a resounding impact.
The impact was catastrophic, letting out a shockwave that rippled through the chamber, and the ground beneath Emma's feet cratered, stone shattering outward in a spiderweb of cracks.
Her arms shook, her boots dug into the ground, and flames roared from the cleaver's edge as she pushed back against the Giant's overwhelming strength.
"Is that all you got, you overgrown torch?" Emma snarled through gritted teeth.
Rook appeared beside the Giant in a blur of motion, just in time to drive his cocked back molten fist into the Giant's face with a sound like a boulder hitting a mountain.
The Giant's head snapped to the side, its massive body staggering back, and it shook its head like it was trying to clear stars from its vision.
But the Giant's momentary pause was short-lived, as it swiftly recovered and unleashed a vicious backhand with its free hand, sending Rook flying across the chamber.
The force of the impact was brutal, and Rook's molten body hurtled through the air, digging a trench through the stone floor before finally coming to a stop, his form still smoldering... ssshhhhhh...
Emma seized the opportunity, her eyes locked on the Giant's momentarily exposed flank. As it struggled to regain its footing, she unleashed a devastating horizontal slash with the Dragon King, the cleaver biting deep into its leg with a burst of fiery energy.
This made the Giant let out a deafening roar. The flames erupted along the wound, and its massive body stumbled, weight shifting precariously.
Cassandra struck from the other side like a ghost, her blade flashing as she swung in rapid succession. With each swing, crescent-shaped constructs of ice launched from her sword, slamming into the Giant's body, and the ice hissed and steamed where it met the molten armor, creating clouds of vapor that filled the chamber.
Kurt stood frozen, watching the fighters move so fast he could barely keep up. Emma's strikes were brutal and precise, Rook was a machine, and Cassandra's ice attacks were relentless. He could barely follow the flow of the fight, let alone contribute.
"Right," Kurt muttered, pulling up his system. "Time to stop being a dead weight."
He focused on Pyrokinesis and tried to dump more points into it. The ability had somehow become his personal favorite for whatever reason.
[ERROR]
Ability Locked: [Pyrokinesis D-Rank]
[Reason: Attribute requirements not met. Increase relevant stats to unlock further upgrades]
Kurt stared at the notification. "You've got to be bloody kidding me."
"Kurt!" Rook's voice was loud enough to be heard through the chaos. He'd pushed himself up from the trench, and turned to Kurt. "If you're just gonna stand there, least you can do is move those guys out of here!"
Rook gestured toward the unconscious guild members scattered near the entrance.
Kurt opened his mouth to argue, but then one of the guild members went flying. The Giant had swatted him like a bug, and the poor bastard slammed into the golden door they'd entered through.
His body laid out, and his skull glowed faintly as Lizzie's healing aura reached him, knitting bone and tissue back together.
"Alright," Kurt muttered. "You make a decent point."
He turned back to his system and made a decision. If he couldn't upgrade Pyrokinesis, he'd work with what he had. So he dumped 5 points into Kinetic Charge and Teleportation, pushing them to E-rank, because why not?
[Kinetic Charge - E Rank]
- Imbue objects with kinetic energy; they detonate on impact with increased force
- Cost to next rank (D): 10 points
[Teleportation - E Rank]
- Teleportation across distances, up to 30 feet via blink
- Cost to next rank (D): 10 points
Available Points: 33
Then he distributed the rest to his stats. Ten points into Agility. Eleven into Perception. Seven into Strength. Five into Luck
[ATTRIBUTES]
Strength: 8 → 15
Agility: 9 → 19
Perception: 7 → 18
Luck: 5 → 10
Available Points: 0
The changes kicked in hard. The blur around him sharpened into focus, and he could suddenly see every detail.
Emma's subtle weight shifts before each swing, Cassandra's blade slicing through the air with precision, and the Giant's movements, all of it became less like a blur.
His body felt lighter, faster, and when he took a step forward, the movement was smooth and effortless.
"That's the stuff!" Kurt muttered with excitement like he had just inhaled a bag full of charlie. "That's more like it."
He crouched and grabbed a handful of rocks from the shattered ground, pouring kinetic energy into each one, and they began to glow faintly in his hand.
Across the chamber, Cassandra slammed her sword into the ground, and a glacier of ice erupted upward in a huge spike that rammed into the Giant's blade as a result of its attempt to block.
The impact still shoved the massive creature back several meters, its feet skidding against the ground and carving trenches into the stone. But the Giant refused to fall, its balance wobbly yet maintained.
As it roared, Kurt pushed himself up with a grin across his face. He clamped his cigarette between his teeth, twirling the glowing rocks in his hand pulsing with energy, and he looked ready to take on the world, or at least, the Giant.
"Right then," he said with a different look in his eyes. "Time to bugger off you overgrown poker rod."